The present invention is directed to systems and methods for message delivery in communication networks, and especially to systems and methods for message delivery in telecommunication networks.
Various commercial establishments have occasions for communicating with a plurality of addressees in order to convey a message to the intended message recipients. For example, a merchant may wish to apprise potential customers of a sale event at one or more locations in a geographical area.
By way of example, retail establishments such as supermarkets, golf courses, movie theaters, and others, often communicate with customers by sending notices or advertisements through the postal service or another mail delivery service. The communications may be printed notices or advertising circulars, and may be in an electronic medium such as a floppy disc, a CD-ROM or DVD or other machine readable format. Mailing through a mail delivery service has the desirable attribute of enabling communications from one-to-many. Hereinafter in this description, the term “one-tomany” refers to one originator entity substantially simultaneously communicating with a plurality of receiving entities. In the retail example described above, one retail establishment (the originator entity) communicates with many customers or other consumers (the receiving entities) by mailing information concerning advertisements, sales or other promotions or communiques. There is a disadvantage in terms of timeliness involved in such mail delivery of communications: because of the time required for sorting and delivering the mail, two to five days or more may elapse before receiving entities receive the communication. Advertisers may wish to offer “perishable” goods or services so that timely communications are a necessity. For example, theater tickets are a perishable offering. If a movie theater seat is not sold for a particular showing, the opportunity to realize revenue from that seat for that particular showing is lost; it is perishable. There are other examples of perishable products and services where retail establishments may want to promote perishable items to customers within certain time frames. Timely communication of opportunities to customers may require sending communications and getting a response from customers within hours, not the days that are usually involved when using the postal service. There are express mail and messenger services available for shortening delivery and response times, however such specialized services are often cost prohibitive.
Mailed communications also are generally the same for receiving entities in a given Zip Code or other geographic area. There is usually no (or little) consideration given to an individual receiving entities' likes, dislikes or other preferences in preparing a communication mailing. A significant consequence of such a generalized message is a low response and redemption rate. That is, customers often simply ignore or discard communications without even reading them because of a perception that the communications are not something that would be of interest.
Another disadvantage of mailed communications has been safety; the mails have been used as a vehicle for terrorism. Mail recipients have fallen victim to explosives and toxins that have been unlawfully enclosed in their mail. Mail communication campaigns are also susceptible to the possibility of cross contamination among mail pieces so that toxins or other mail mischief carried by one piece of mail may pass a noxious characteristic to other mail pieces during normal mail sorting and handling operations. As a consequence, receiving entities affected by the objectionable mail may be multiplied several-fold.
In summary, there are at least three aspects of mailed communications for conveying commercial messages that can be improved: timeliness, responsiveness, and safety.
Advances in technology and telecommunication systems have been employed to address these shortcomings. In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell was credited with inventing the telephone and creating the means for one-to-one voice communications over a distance. Since then, advances in communications and electronics have made communications possible throughout most of the world. For example, the Global Standard for Mobiles (GSM), the European standard that emerged circa 1991, includes provisions for one-to-one text messaging to and from wireless handsets. This GSM standard uses a store and forward system for short messages. In addition, since the development of the Internet, email, voice over Internet protocol, instant messaging, and other messaging techniques are becoming popular communications vehicles.
Retail establishments may opt to use telephone systems, email, facsimile, mobile and other communication media to communicate with customers or prospective customers. These various communication media also provide a means for one to communicate to many in real or near real time. One-to-many communications require the flexibility to simultaneously address a variety of the many media available.
Communication systems and methods with one-to-many capabilities have been proposed. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,289,223 to Mukherjee, et al for “System and Method for Selective Multipoint Transmission of Short Message Service Messages,” issued Sep. 11, 2001, a system and method are disclosed which contemplate the transmission of short message service (SMS) messages to a plurality of destination units by transmitting an SMS message addressed to a predefined user group. Mukherjee discloses a system and method for carrying out message transmission from one-to-many in an SMS format. Mukherjee discloses a system and method by which a message originator enters a desired message and then initiates an SMS transmission by entering a user group identifier in place of an individual recipient's identifier. Using a properly defined user group that includes a data base of one or many SMS identifiers allows the transmission of the desired message from one SMS capable device to many SMS capable mobile units. However, Mukherjee's invention provides only for delivery to SMS capable mobile units. In addition, there is no consideration for the tastes or preferences of message recipients.
Thus, prior art communication systems and methods do not accommodate customer preferences, and usually one is limited to a single communication medium in carrying out the distribution of a message. That is, sending a facsimile communication is received by those customers or prospective customers that are equipped to receive facsimile messages. Other types of communication are destined for reception by receiving entities that are equipped to receive the communication format used by the originator entity in transmitting the message.
There is a need for a communication system and method that enables real or near real time communications using a variety of communication media that conform to receiving entities' communication capabilities.
There is a need for a communication system and method that also accommodates receiving entities' preferences as to various aspects of the messages, such as originator of the messages, content of the messages, and other characteristics of the messages.
There is a need for a communication system and method that facilitates communication on a one-to-many basis with diverse populations with different tastes and requirements for products, services, and communication media.
Preferably, recipients may elect to receive communications via a plurality of media. Such a plurality of media may include, by way of example and not by way of limitation, voice, data or video communications. The technology to support the delivery of messages includes, but is not limited to, voice terminals (for example: publicly switch telephone services, mobile voice terminals, voice over Internet protocol), emails, faxes, pages, short message services, instant messages, enhanced messaging services, multimedia messaging services, video conferences.